Accurate Transmission-Less Attenuation Correction Method for Amyloid-β Brain PET Using Deep Neural Network

The lack of physically measured attenuation maps (mu-maps) for attenuation and scatter correction is an important technical challenge in brain-dedicated stand-alone positron emission tomography (PET) scanners. The accuracy of the calculated attenuation correction is limited by the nonuniformity of tissue composition due to pathologic conditions and the complex structure of facial bones. The aim of this study is to develop an accurate transmission-less attenuation correction method for amyloid-beta (A beta) brain PET studies. We investigated the validity of a deep convolutional neural network trained to produce a CT-derived mu-map (mu-CT) from simultaneously reconstructed activity and attenuation maps using the MLAA (maximum likelihood reconstruction of activity and attenuation) algorithm for A beta brain PET. The performance of three different structures of U-net models (2D, 2.5D, and 3D) were compared. The U-net models generated less noisy and more uniform mu-maps than MLAA mu-maps. Among the three different U-net models, the patch-based 3D U-net model reduced noise and cross-talk artifacts more effectively. The Dice similarity coefficients between the mu-map generated using 3D U-net and mu-CT in bone and air segments were 0.83 and 0.67. All three U-net models showed better voxel-wise correlation of the mu-maps compared to MLAA. The patch-based 3D U-net model was the best. While the uptake value of MLAA yielded a high percentage error of 20% or more, the uptake value of 3D U-nets yielded the lowest percentage error within 5%. The proposed deep learning approach that requires no transmission data, anatomic image, or atlas/template for PET attenuation correction remarkably enhanced the quantitative accuracy of the simultaneously estimated MLAA mu-maps from A beta brain PET.

Automated summary

The lack of physically measured attenuation maps (mu-maps) in brain-dedicated stand-alone PET scanners is a challenge, but the study successfully developed a transmission-less attenuation correction method for A beta brain PET imaging using a deep learning approach. Among the three U-net models tested, the 3D U-net model showed the best performance in reducing noise and artifacts, significantly improving the accuracy of mu-map generation compared to traditional MLAA method.